Cinque Terre, IT

A wine bar and small plates spot on the Punta Bonfiglio headland above Manarola with the most envied terrace view in the Cinque Terre — the village stacked on its cliff directly across the cove, glowing at sunset. The kitchen produces Ligurian-focused small plates: anchovies in multiple preparations, focaccia, local cheeses, and simple seafood pastas to accompany the well-chosen regional wine list.

The most serious seafood kitchen in the Cinque Terre, operating since 1980 on the Monterosso seafront, where Chef Miky De Fina builds dishes around the morning's catch including the eight-way Monterosso anchovy preparation that is the restaurant's most distinctive expression of the village's defining ingredient. The handmade pasta shapes — breaded bread-dough 'oyster shells' housing seasoned trenette — are the technical high point.

The casual sister to Ristorante Miky, run by the same family with a slightly more relaxed menu of Ligurian seafood classics — pasta al pesto with hand-cut trofie, spaghetti all'acciugata (anchovy-dressed pasta with toasted breadcrumbs), grilled catch of the day — at prices a step below the main restaurant. The combination makes it the most reliable quality-to-price option in Monterosso.

A restaurant in the medieval Belforte tower above Vernazza harbour where the dining room is literally within the castle walls and the terrace looks directly over the water to the headland beyond. The kitchen focuses on Ligurian seafood with a more refined approach than most village options — branzino with Ligurian olive oil, fresh pasta with local clams, seafood antipasti boards.

Corniglia's most reliable restaurant in the medieval lane network, where a compact menu of Ligurian specialties — fish soups, anchovy bruschette, vegetable torte, homemade pasta — is served in a room that fills with the village's limited visitor traffic and a handful of locals. One of the few real kitchens (rather than bars with food) in the village.

A compact fried-fish counter in the main lane of Riomaggiore where the catch is battered and fried to order and eaten standing or perched on the harbour steps — anchovies, calamari, gamberi, whatever came off the boats. It is the most genuine version of the seafood street-food tradition that has sustained these fishing villages for centuries.

A husband-and-wife cafeteria-style spot in the old quarter of Monterosso where fresh pesto, stuffed vegetables, Ligurian torta (vegetable tart), and prepared salads are assembled into the most honest and affordable lunch in the five villages. Regulars arrive early before the best dishes sell out.

A harbourside restaurant right on the water at the bottom of Manarola's steep village lane, where tables are positioned as close to the sea as the structure allows and the kitchen focuses on the day's Ligurian catch with pasta and grilled preparations. One of the very few restaurants in the five villages with a sea-level position rather than a clifftop view.

The northern section of the Cinque Terre Blue Trail connects Vernazza and Monterosso through the most dramatic coastal terrain in the entire route — steep stone staircases cut into the cliff face, terraced vineyards suspended above the sea, and views of both villages from a ridge between them. The 3.8km route takes about 90 minutes and requires good footwear.

The less-known high trail runs the full length of the national park above the coastal path, traversing the mountain ridge that backs the five villages at 600 metres with views down to all five towns and out to sea. The full traverse takes seven to eight hours but individual sections between the villages can be walked as half-day routes. Dramatically quieter than the Sentiero Azzurro below.

One of the Cinque Terre's most satisfying mid-length trails climbs from Manarola through the working vineyard terraces that produce the DOC wine of the region, with views back to the village from above that few visitors ever see, before reaching Corniglia along the cliff edge. The two-hour route passes through the agricultural heart of the wine country and the dry-stone terrace system is most evident here.

The shortest and flattest coastal path in the Cinque Terre links the two southernmost villages along a concrete ledge blasted into the cliff face in the 1920s with the sea immediately below. Sections have been closed and reopened repeatedly after rockfall events — check current status before visiting. When open, the 1km walk takes 20 minutes and the views of the vertical cliff coast are unlike anything else on the route.

The least known ambitious hike in the park climbs from Riomaggiore to the Monte Telegrafo ridge (812m), the highest point above the five villages, on a trail that passes through abandoned agricultural terracing and chestnut forest before emerging on a bare summit with a 360-degree view over the entire national park, the Gulf of La Spezia, and on clear days the peaks of the Apuan Alps beyond Carrara.

Liguria invented pesto genovese and the proper version is made in a marble mortar with a wooden pestle, never a blender, using Genovese basil (DOP certified), local pine nuts, pecorino, Parmigiano, and Ligurian olive oil. Classes run at Nessun Dorma in Manarola and at several other locations across the five villages, teaching the mortar method with a view of the coast as backdrop.

The most revealing way to understand the vertical relationship between the five villages and the sea they face — boats run between all five from early morning, and private charter options allow swimming stops in coves accessible only from the water. From the sea, the scale of the terraced hillsides rising directly from the water becomes apparent in a way no land trail captures.

The rarest wine of the Ligurian coast is the Sciacchetrà, produced in tiny quantities from sun-dried Bosco and Albarola grapes grown on the near-vertical terraces of the national park. Tasting it with a producer — at a cellar in Manarola, Riomaggiore, or Vernazza — connects the glass to the extraordinary landscape visible from every terrace. The Cinque Terre wine consortium organises structured tastings in season.

The sea cliffs between the five villages hide waterfalls, caves, and swimming coves accessible only by water, and kayaking allows passage through sea arches and into spaces no trail or boat can reach. Local operators run guided half-day tours from Monterosso or Riomaggiore with good knowledge of the accessible coves and the marine park regulations about where swimming is permitted.

The national park pass covers access to the coastal trails, unlimited train journeys between all five villages, and the park visitor centres, giving the most flexible way to move between villages without a car. The train frequency (roughly every 30 minutes) makes it possible to walk one section, take the train back, and walk another section in sequence rather than doing the whole coastal path as a single gruelling traverse.

The most complete medieval village in the five, where an 11th-century octagonal tower built by the Doria family still stands on the promontory above a small protected harbour that colourful fishing boats and the odd gozzo share with swimming visitors. The harbour piazza is entirely surrounded by pastel buildings stacked against the cliff, and the effect from the water looking in is one of the most photographed compositions in Italy.

The rocky headland just above Manarola village provides the best panoramic view in the Cinque Terre — the coloured houses stacked on the cliff with the fishing boats moored below and the Ligurian coast stretching in both directions. Manarola is the oldest village in the five, with a 14th-century church at its upper end, and the wine produced on the terraced hillsides above feeds directly into the Cinque Terre DOC designation.

The only one of the five villages not on the coast, Corniglia sits on a clifftop 100 metres above the sea and is reached by 382 steps from the train station — or a shuttle — making it consistently the quietest of the five. The medieval alley network is narrow enough that you can touch both walls with outstretched arms, and the bar terrace at the cliff edge has a view that most visitors who skip the steps never see.

The southernmost village has the steepest harbour — boats are winched up the ramp onto the quay — and the most colourful house facades stacked directly over the water. The famous Via dell'Amore (Path of Love) that once connected it to Manarola has been partially reopened after landslide closures; when accessible, the first section offers the coast's most accessible dramatic cliff-path walk.

The largest and flattest of the five villages, with the only real sandy beach in the Cinque Terre and a historic old quarter separated from the new town by a railway tunnel. The old quarter's medieval lanes, the giant Aurora Tower on the headland, and the terrace of the San Francesco convent are more interesting than the beach infrastructure but less visited. Monterosso is the best base for multi-day stays.

The heroic viticulture of Cinque Terre — where every vine is planted on near-vertical terraces supported by thousands of kilometres of ancient dry-stone walls, reachable only on foot or by monorail — produces the DOC white wine of the region and the tiny quantities of Sciacchetrà, a rare passito (dried-grape) sweet wine with concentrated apricot and honey notes. Visiting a producer directly in Manarola or Riomaggiore is the best way to understand what makes this wine extraordinary.